IRS: 1,470 millionaires paid not a penny of income taxes

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Forums > All Posts > IRS: 1,470 millionaires paid not a penny of income taxes

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2011-08-08 08:57 AM

Schmidt
Colorado Springs, CO
Posts: 1058

We have discussed taxes many times in this website. I have been a strong advocate for raising taxes on the rich, but I appreciate the arguments that others have made opposing such cuts, and the fact that raising top marginal rates alone may not bring in that much additional revenue. What is also needed is a revamp of our tax code and closing of loopholes that allow so many millionaires to escape paying any taxes at all. For those millionaires, it doesn't matter what the marginal rates are, they'll find a way of paying no taxes.

This argument is borne out by the IRS's release of new statistics on the breakdown of the tax burden on demographic groups. The report is tedious to go through so I'll fall back to Politico's summary of key points:

People and households earning $1 million or more annually made up just 0.1 percent, or just over 235,000, of the 140 million tax returns filed in 2009.

Those 235,413 taxpayers who reported earnings over $1 million took in a total of $726.9 billion.

1,470 of these millionaires paid not a penny of income taxes.

8,274 returns were filed by people making $10 million or more.

The tax rate for those making $1 million or more averaged 24.4 percent, up from 23.1 percent in 2008.

That compares with an average of 28.5 percent rate they paid in 2002 when President George W. Bush was in office.

The vast majority of tax return filers — more than 97 percent — reported incomes of less than $200,000.

The average income was $54,283, a drop of more than $3,500, or 6 percent, from 2008. That puts the average income at its lowest level since 1997.

2011-08-11 09:39 AM

Hafar
Not Selected

Account Frozen

Posts: 30

Using income as a measure of wealth is useless especially if its an S corp or sole proprietorship. A small business will showing an income of 1000000 may only be paying the owner a salery of 50,000-100,000. These people create half the jobs in America. Raise their income taxes and they will lay workers off, not hire, raise prices, and transfer the tax to you the consumer. The fact is the wealthy just collect taxes from the rest of us. Thats why redistribution never works. No matter what rate you tax people the revenues collected be the government will always be 19-20% of GDP. The only way to get more money in the government is to increase the GDP. You do that by cutting taxes and oppressive government regulations. This administration is doing the opposite and we can see the result. You dont have any moral right to tax people because they make more than you. You make what you deserve not what you need.

2011-08-12 07:20 AM

Lamar Boone
Sneads, FL
Posts: 3

We Must Remember

Today there is much debate as to which Party can best serve the American People. Let us not forget the facts from the past for they clearly show that only one Party has ever held the People's interests in high regrad.

The plain and simple truth is the Democrats have always understood that it is the People who support the Country and make it a strong and viable Country. Without the People's efforts America always falls into decline.

The Republician Party has always been on the side of Large Corporations and the Wealthy, They believe that it is the Wealthy who make America Strong and Vibrate. However History has proven the Republician Party wrong Time and Time again.

I ask each American a simple question, how much has the Trickle Down Economics of the Republician Party enhanced your Life? The answer is, Not one ioda of prosperity has it made in the Lives of the average American Citizen.

Yet People continue to fall for these false promise's. Sure it sounds good, but let's be honest with each other. The Wealthy serve only thier own interests. They alway want more no matter how much Wealth they accumulate.

If this notion of Trickle Down Economic's is the Real Deal, why then do we find our selves in Financial Decline? I mean come on, Large Corporations like Oil Companies and Insurance Companies are showing Record Quarterly Profits not Record Annual Profits but Record Quarterly Profits.

The question is, just how much Money does a Company need before the Trickle Down Theroy come's into Play? The answer is, they never get enough. No matter how much they accumulate they always want more.

The Republician Party would have us to believe that taking from the Poor and giving it to the Wealthy is our only Hope for Survial. Again let's be honest with each other. How many People have the Wealthy helped to live a better Life? None, not one and the Records clearly indicates that as an absolute fact.

However, the Democrats have always understood that it is the People's efforts that make America Strong and Vibrate. They have always fought for Prosperity knowing that as the People Prosper so does the Country Prosper.

Allow me to remind everyone, when President George W. Bush was in Office his Adminstration accumulated the Largest Debt our Country had ever seen in our History. In fact the Debt He incurred was more than all of the preceding Presidents had incurred combined. None the less the Republician Party to this Day continues to Preach thier message without any change what so ever.

Now allow me to also remind everyone, that when Bill Clinton was in Office His Administration balanced the Budget for the first Time in over 30 Years. One must ask, how was this possible? The answer is simple. The Democrats have always understood that without the efforts of the People no Country can Prosper that's just and Economic Fact.

If you really believe in the Trickle Down Economics Theroy then Vote Republician. However if you have had enough of the Lie's and False Hope and want to see America flourish again Vote Democrat because they have always fought for the Prosperity of the People knowing that as the People Prosper so does the Country Prosper and the Records clearly show that as an absolute Fact.

Sincerely and Respectively;

Lamar Boone

2011-08-12 08:22 AM

Hafar
Not Selected

Account Frozen

Posts: 30

The "party of the people" has run our economy into the ground by following the European model of the welfare state. Expanding government, regressive tax policies, oppressive regulations, and social justice fanaticism, has stopped job creation and expansion of Americas GDP. Democrats are obscessed with taxing the successsful, blaming them for poverty, inciting class warfare, and increasing the national debt. The result is a stagnant economy, high unemployment, a perpetually dependent class, and a move toward totalitarianism as the left seeks to gain control of every aspect of our lives. Americans are living the progressive utopia right now and they hate it. The poor are doing even worse under the fist of social justice. African American unemployment is way up, and their wealth is way down. The progressives are not a new movement ad they were rejected in the past. They became so unpopular they changed their name to liberal. Now feeling confident that no opne remembers(public schools dodnt teach history) they emerged again as the progressives. Ironically, there is nothing progressive about their policies. They impose the same socialist model that has never worked anywhere in history. LIke the insane they expect different results this time afgter doing the same things that always failed in the past. Their leader Obama was an average, unknown who voted present 120 times when he was a senator. He doesnt take positions he positions himself. Here we see him today unable to deal with the failed economy his ideas have fostered on us. He makes vapid pointless speeches that say nothing. He has no clue or plan. He is unable to evaluate himself and change direction. All he can do is what the left always does, blame the wealthy, defined as earning 200,000, demand more taxes, more spending, more borrowing, and more owhat caused this problem in the first place.

2011-08-12 09:49 AM

CARLITOS BAM-BAM
Dallas, TX
Posts: 897

So Bill Clinton was a socialist?
And liberals/progressives are completely to blame for anything that ever goes wrong, and Republicans never do anything wrong?

If you believe that, well I got some ocean front property in Arizona to sell you.
.......
You tea-partiers make every Republican President in history look like flaming Communists, even your beloved Reagan. That peacenik oversaw the expansion of the most successful 'wealth transfer' in American history: the Earned Income Tax Credit--which was largely built off of the "negative income tax" ideas supported by Milton Friedman. And as Dick Cheney said "Reagan proved deficits don't matter."
"The Line Begins to Blur"-NIN

2011-08-12 10:00 AM

Schmidt
Colorado Springs, CO
Posts: 1058

Hafar, everyone of your points has been disputed by recognized economists and political historians. You are sounding much like the Rupert Murdoch, Fox News ideologues. We can engage in an intellectual discussion about the finer points of the economy and the causes of recessions, but just making regurgitated and false talking points from Sean Hannity or Steve Doocey won't cut it here.

"Concentration of income and wealth at the top continues to be the crux of America's predicament." -- Robert Reich, Aftershock

"Those of us who call ourselves liberal are, in an important sense, conservative, while those who call themselves conservative are for the most part deeply radical. Liberals want to restore the middle-class society I grew up in; those who call themselves conservative want to take us back to the Gilded Age, undoing a century of history." -- Paul Krugman, The Conscience of a Liberal

Yes we can certainly undo all the social, worker safety and environmental regulations that have defined the American working class this century...and yes tearing it all down will ensure that we can compete with China...and yes in the process we'll become just like China...a country of low wage serfs overseen by some powerful Communist oligarchs.

However, one difference will be what Chris Hedges calls "inverted totalitariansim"...not a single dictator like in China...but a conglomeration of corporations that will rule America. Think of it as an organization chart. Right now we have "We the People" at the top of that chart, with the three branches of government answering to the People. In your ideal world, the top of the chart would be the corporations, with the three branches of government answering to the corporate world.

As Mitt Romney said, "Corporations are people my friend."...and therefore he must believe that they are also "We the People."

With that pervasive mentality within the Republican Party, we are on our way to that inverted totalitarian state if indeed Republicans are successful in their campaign of falsehoods to deceive the masses.

2011-08-12 11:33 AM

skykeys
Not Selected
Posts: 1

@ "Schmidt".    Your comments and quoted passages are right on. I am in fact a registered Republican - but definitely a moderate at best (or worst, depending on your pov).   I have become horrified at what has happened to the Republican party, and what is happending to our country as a result.

In the 1960's and 70's, Democrats were the party of the extreme left wing zealots;   Republicans were pretty much the party of moderates.   Now, it's the opposite extreme. Republicans are dominated by extreme right-wing zealots and the Democrats are primarily moderate.

There has definitely been a transfer of wealth from the middle class to the upper class. In the 1950's corporations paid between 30 to 30% of all income taxes collected. Today, it's between 14 and 19%. (I've seen slightly different numbers from respected sources, but the trend is definitely obvious).

Yet corporations complain that they are taxed too much. Well, it seems to depend on what tax attorney you have and what politician you have in your back pocket that ultimately determines a company's effective tax rate - and that is perverse and corrupt. This gives large corporations a big advantage over small business, as large corps can afford (and leverage the cost of) expensive tax attorneys to navigate the labyrinth of tax laws, as well as using money to influence politicians to write laws that favor their company. As an aside - Citizens United is a very bad law. It's corrupting the electoral and general political process in this country.

We need tax reform in this country. Everyone is going to have to compromise.

We won't have a thriving economy unless we have a thriving middle class. We've had the Bush Tax Cuts in effect for ten years now. In that time, the average middle class worker has seen his/her wages decline, while the rich now receive a greater percentage of total income since the days of the robber barons. Good paying middle class jobs shifted overseas, and they are increasingly going up the wage scale with that trend. Jobs that are actually staring to come back now - lower paying customer service rep jobs. Robert Reich is right on with his analysis.

It's becoming a two class society. Not good. So, I think that is a long enough time frame to say that tax cuts for the rich do nothing but help the rich stay rich, at the middle class' expense.

www.the-moderates-perspective.blogspot.com

2011-08-23 10:43 AM

Robert Christian, tv host
Seattle, WA
Posts: 2

When Bill Clinton left the oval office, yes we had a major surplus in our country. Bush took all that money then more to go to war, lie to the american people and the world. His first statement to Iraq was " do not destroy your oil wells". Simple fact he was going to war not to defend the United States, but to take oil. Having said that, We do need a radical president surely, but we do not need a crazed idiot in there either. taxation oh yes.. point at hand. Same sex couples now allowed to marry pay income tax like everyone else-. The rich keep their money pay no income tax yet- the poor pay for it. Medicare being the joke it is-the point here is that for each ultra wealthy person or family in america not paying their share- all trickles down to the rest of us who are not ultra rich. What abut the ultra poor? Are they are protected group? I do not think so. The poor have always had the economy ballanced on their backside, . It is wrong wrong wrong.
www.hourforum.net It makes me sick, mad, and just over all upset to hear even big oil keeps getting their free hand outs, while they rob all of us. The Healthcare system is yet another story. Makes me sick

2011-08-27 03:30 PM

Hafar
Not Selected

Account Frozen

Posts: 30

Money that isnt taxed still exists. It goes to work in the economy serving peoples needs. Who cares if some people dont pay taxes they spend their money and create jobs. Thats better than sending it down the rathole of government where it does nothing like the stimulous.

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